David Sedaris' "Naked": Get Your Ya-Ya's Out

Sedaris’ touching tale of his Greek Orthodox grandmother is once again salvaged by its inherent truth. If it wasn’t real, it would be cynical and uncaring, but the piece is infused with inescapable familial love. Unfortunately, Sedaris’ mother really comes off as the villain – I would’ve like to have seen her side of the story, why she insists on getting rid of Ya Ya. She gains a little bit of redemption at the end, when she reveals that her disgust for Ya Ya’s cling to life is true of all old age. She tells her kids to pull the plug, no matter what, if they have a choice. “When I get that way, I want you to shoot me, no questions asked,” she says, and though there’s a hint of irony in her voice we know she’s being serious.

There is a moment in this story that reminded me of when my own grandfather died. In the story, David complains when he’s told he’s not allowed to wear his gold earring to the funeral. His mother guilts him into taking it out, saying that it is, after all, a funeral. The shame that he feels for thinking of himself more than the deceased reminded me of a similar situation involving formal pants at my grandfather’s funeral. I was eight, but the shame stayed with me. This is an example of the truth I praised earlier –the situations he creates come up in real life all the time.